In the related art, a regulator having low current consumption and high load response performance is disclosed. The regulator includes a small-size current detection MOSFET, which is in mirror relation with an output MOSFET, to detect a load of the output MOSFET and increase a current of an error amplifier only when the load is high, thereby increasing the responsiveness.
However, since a semiconductor integrated circuit for the regulator disclosed in the related art has a circuit configuration in which the gates and sources of the output MOSFET and the current detection MOSFET are shared, under the condition that the output MOSFET is made completely conductive (for example, when an input voltage is lower than an output set voltage), there is a problem that a load current is constantly detected regardless of the state of the load, resulting in an increase in current consumption. Therefore, there is a need for further improvement in terms of reduction of current consumption.